The letter that helped expose the North Shore Rapist (2024)

One of the women who survived the North Shore Rapist helped unmask her own attacker, penning a powerful letter that argued “the community should have the right to protect themselves” in a way she could not have protected herself.

The NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a 2020 ruling that had suppressed Graham James Kay’s name and allowed him to distance himself from his attacks on eight women and girls in the late 1990s.

Kay’s attacks have continued since his release from prison without substantial punishment, and he has since been released back into the community, prompting The Sydney Morning Herald to challenge the suppression order.

Among the pages of evidence provided to the court was a short but powerful letter written by one of the women Kay stalked and assaulted more than 20 years ago.

The woman, who cannot be identified, did not use Kay’s name and referred to him only as “the offender” in her letter to Justice Sarah McNaughton.

“The offender continues to present an unacceptable risk to the community,” the woman wrote.

“The offender should be exposed for his crimes, and the community has the right to know the identity of the offender.”

The woman feared Kay had continued to exhibit “predatory behaviours” since his release from prison, two decades after he attacked her and seven other women and girls.

“The community should be given the opportunity to protect themselves, and they can only do this if they know his identity,” Kay’s victim urged the court in July.

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“I feel strongly that members of the community should have the right to protect themselves, in a way that I did not have the opportunity to protect myself,” she wrote.

Kay had also been treated softly by the courts before his string of attacks in the 1990s.

He had followed and groped women, spied on other women inside their homes, and been a domestic violence abuser. But despite being brought before the courts five times, he was only punished with good behaviour bonds.

“I was fearful that I was going to die at the hands of the offender and would not wish that upon anyone else,” the woman wrote in her letter.

Kay served 18 years in jail for the attacks before being paroled in 2015, but his offending continued.

In 2018, the serial rapist planted a “slobbery kiss” on the cheek of a 16-year-old girl working in a grocery store after the government allowed him to walk around without an electronic ankle monitor.

It was only because of media publicity that the girl knew her assailant was the infamous North Shore Rapist and reported the unwanted kiss to the police, the court found on Tuesday.

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Kay was given a good behaviour bond but spent more time in prison because he had a sex worker at his home, in breach of his release conditions.

Despite that, Kay’s restrictions were relaxed again in 2020, and two years later, he stalked and indecently assaulted a terrified woman in Sydney’s CBD.

By then his name was suppressed and crucial details hidden from the public – until the Herald’s legal win this week.

Herald editor Bevan Shields said challenging the suppression of Kay’s name was an “important fight”, but the masthead was spending an increasing amount of time and money challenging similar orders in the courts.

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“This was an important fight for the Herald, and I am very pleased with the outcome. However, suppression orders continue to be a huge challenge for the media and the public’s right to know,” Shields said.

“I want to thank our excellent legal team – particularly executive counsel Larina Alick and barrister Matthew Lewis – for their work in overturning a suppression order which protected a convicted serial rapist and allowed a poor decision by the state to go unreported.”

Shields said the masthead will continue to push the judicial system “to ensure the principles of open justice are never taken for granted or abused”.

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